January 11, 2017

Media Establishment: Trump lies and so do we

It's fascinating to see the current generation of reporters and editors systematically destroying the institutions they inherited.

The credibility of the New York Times, the Washington Post and even newer platforms like CNN, was the work of decades of hard effort. Part of that effort was in only going with news items that they could verify - not only to avoid a libel suit, but to their readers.

After all, they are purveyors of nothing more than information. If the information is faulty, they really have nothing to sell.

My late grandfather worked in advertising during the Mad Men era. One of the ornaments in his house was a decorative clay pot mounted on a revolving base. Written around the pot (in such a way that one had to rotate it to read it) were the words:

And yet the mainstream press is now to the point where they openly proclaim their willingness to lie about Donald Trump because, well, they think he does it, too. They are the peddlers letting everyone know that their fruit is at least as rancid as that other guy's over there.

Faced with such a situation, a rational business would place even more emphasis on its verification procedures - burnishing their brand and setting themselves up as the gold standard of quality information.

The end result is that they will continue to lose credibility and market share. Trump will mock them publicly and when they complain, even people otherwise inclined to support them turn away because they also want accurate information.

This is the paradox of the Democratic operatives with bylines (otherwise known as the mainstream media): They want to wield influence, and so they gin up nonsense stories to try to move the public in a given direction.

Yet in so doing, they not only fail to move the public, they make it less likely that the public will believe them in a situation where every aspect of the story can be proven true.

I don't rejoice in this situation, but I have to admit that I do enjoy watching stupid people destroy their careers and their businesses.